1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to distributed software execution, and more particularly to a methods and systems for submitting tasks via a non-proprietary, common format.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software is used to perform daily tasks at a rapidly increasing rate. New software is therefore being developed at an even more increasing rate. Assessing software reliability through software testing has therefore become an imperative stage in software development cycle. Software testing finds and eliminates defects (i.e., bugs) in software, which if undetected, can cause the software to operate improperly. In general, a stand-alone computer or a network of computer resources can be used to perform software testing. When a stand-alone computer system is used to perform the software testing, the computer system is programmed to run a test selected by the software user. When a network of computer resources is used, the user must manually add and delete the computer resources to the network, program the master computer system and the server, initiate the running of a user-selected test, and run the test on the group of dedicated computer systems coupled to the server. A distributed testing of this sort presents launch and control problems, as described next with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a prior art distributed test configuration 100. The distributed test configuration 100 includes several test systems 102a–102c, each executing a test application 104a–104c. Tests are submitted by manually entering the tests in a test sub-directory under an application to be tested.
Unfortunately, in the distributed test configuration 100 all tests must be submitted to meet the specific format requirements of the distributed test configuration 100. Further, each task for each test must be manually entered into the application under test sub-directory in the distributed test configuration 100. Manually entering the required tests in the required format is not a problem when the distributed test configuration 100 is readily accessible to a user, however, if as is often the case, the distributed test configuration 100 is isolated from a user, the user will be unable to enter the tasks required to perform the desired testing. The distributed test configuration 100 can be isolated from a user by a firewall or other isolation technique.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a more easily accessible task submission system and method for the distributed test framework such as distributed test configuration 100.